British boy band shoots video at camp, on train

September 29, 2011

SARANAC LAKE - A boy band from the United Kingdom was in the Adirondacks earlier this week to film a new music video.

One Direction, which finished third on the 2010 season of Simon Cowell's television music competition "The X Factor," filmed scenes for the video Tuesday at White Pine Camp in Paul Smiths and on an Adirondack Scenic Railroad train between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.

"Just in the U.S. shooting the video for our second single," the group's Zayn Malik posted on One Direction's Facebook page Tuesday morning. "Chillin with the lads on the set." The group also includes Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan.

White Pine Camp sits on a hill above Osgood Pond and is better known for having been the summer White House for President Calvin Coolidge in 1926. Anne Warner, who manages the camp, said the group had planned to shoot part of its video on the property Wednesday, but that was moved up to Tuesday afternoon because of the threat of rain.

"They basically used our property on the waterfront to shoot the video," she said. "I wasn't too involved in it. They did have a music track playing, and they were either singing lyrics or lip-synching."

About 20 people, including crew and caterers, were on hand for the shoot. Warner said it was organized by Tyler Ellithorpe of Lake Clear, who runs a photo and video production company called Tippy Canoe Productions.

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Earlier Tuesday, scenes for the same video were filmed in an Adirondack Scenic Railroad train that had been chartered for the morning, according to Pete Snyder, operations manager for the railroad's northern end.

"I'm not up on boy bands, but it was pretty cool," said Snyder, who was the engineer during the trip. "They were all nice people. I guess they're pretty popular from what I can tell, although I hadn't heard of them before."

Snyder said the members of the group and a 20-person production crew from New York City showed up at the Lake Placid train station just after 9 a.m.

"I think they got footage of one of the singers lip-synching while the train was moving," he said. "They also did some still shots of him getting on and off the train in Lake Placid. We also stopped along the tracks in Ray Brook."

Snyder said he started and stopped the train a dozen times.

"When they saw some scenery they liked, they'd have us stop the train," he said. "By the time I was able to stop it, we'd have to back it up to where they liked. They were there for two hours, and it was totally spur-of-the-moment starting and stopping. I really wasn't sure what was going to happen next."

While some people have maligned the train, saying it doesn't draw many tourists or do much for the local economy, Snyder said this shows it's an attraction.

"I think it's great," he said. "It keeps us relevant, and it was a lot of fun to do. I think (the video) will be fun to see. It'll probably end up being about 15 seconds of this guy singing on the train, but it took about two hours to make it."

But it wasn't all work for One Direction during their visit to the area. The group reportedly got into a little bit of trouble while staying in Lake Placid. The British tabloid newspaper The Sun, quoting an unnamed source, reported on its website today that the members of the group capsized a small sailboat on Lake Placid that they had "borrowed" during a break from filming the video.

"They had to swim back to the shore where they were given a bollocking by one of the local Port Authority officials," the Sun's source is quoted as saying. "He was screaming at them but Louis and the boys just scarpered. They are hoping they'll be back in the country before any bills arrive at their hotel reception for recovery of the boat."

Following their third-place finish on "The X Factor," One Direction was signed to a recording contract with Syco Music, Simon Cowell's label, and went on tour with other artists from the show. The group's debut single, "What Makes You Beautiful," was released on Sept. 11 and sold more than 150,000 copies in a week. On Monday the band announced plans for a headlining UK tour set to begin with the release of its debut album at the end of the year.